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Town makes more noise over noise
Ordinance would make it illegal to get loud 10 p.m.-6 a.m. in Monterey if passed by council members
BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
MONTEREY - Last Thursday Monterey Town Council reviewed a draft noise ordinance and voted to hold a public hearing on the ordinance at its Nov. 1 meeting.
The ordinance, if approved by the council in November, would make it a class 3 misdemeanor to expose "another person to any irritating, distracting, physically or emotionally harmful, unreasonably loud, disturbing or unnecessary noise, over which the other person has no control."
The ordinance lists factors used to determine a violation, such as the time of day, duration, volume and intensity, repetitive nature and proximity to sleeping facilities. It also includes exemptions for noise from emergency vehicles; bridge, street, highway or utility repair; and reasonable recreational, cultural or leisure activities conducted in a public place.
The ordinance covers noise from vehicles, radios, televisions, musical instruments, loud speakers and similar devices, plus noisy animals, and designates 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily as quiet hours in Monterey. The draft states, "Noises that might be permissible during daylight hours may be deemed to violate this ordinance because of the time during which the noise is occurring."
Council made no changes to the draft Thursday, but members did discuss some of the points.
Mayor Janice Warner said the requirement to have two people report the same noise source would be too difficult, especially for areas of town where houses were generally unoccupied and there may not be more than one person experiencing a disturbing noise.
Town attorney Melissa Dowd said the two-person requirement was needed to ensure personal grudges would not result in a false charge of violating the ordinance. Councilman Francis Fenn agreed. Councilman Sam Shell said, "I was concerned that what bothers me may not bother someone else." He was in favor of the two-person standard. Councilman Ron Wimer said a two-person standard meets the reasonable person standard if a case were brought to court. Councilman Tony Stinnett said, "It makes it stronger with two people."
Dowd said the ordinance would have to be advertised for two weeks and a public hearing held before council could pass the ordinance. "You can have a public hearing at which time you can change it, adopt it, table it, or adopt it at another meeting," said Dowd.
Council passed a motion to advertise and set a public hearing for 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Highland County Public Library.
Public comments net lecture from
councilman
Warner asked Highland County Sheriff Herb Lightner, who attended Thursday's meeting, "Tell me if you think the noise in the town of Monterey has subsided."
Lightner said, "I've patrolled and walked around in the evening. I haven't observed any illegal activity. We still get a couple of complains about dogs barking. Citizens say (the noise) has been reduced substantially."
Resident Rich Holman disagreed. "It depends on where you live," he said. "It may be quiet for you," he told the mayor. "Come over to my house and there is a lot of noise."
Resident Ludford Creef applauded the sheriff's office for its part in bringing noise under control in town. Creef said the sheriff talked to the parents of children who were making noise and the noise has subsided. "Those who want to be good citizens have stopped," he said.
Resident Butch Washer said, "It is a shame that the ordinance is being targeted toward one group. Mobile audio is a fad - it comes and goes. It got bad (in Monterey) 15 years ago? It lasted about five years. I sold my business right before it died. It's no different from hot rods and Harleys for middle-aged adolescents. This ordinance is very specific about one small group and very vague for everything else. That's bad. I'm for a noise ordinance if it is fair to everyone. The group you are targeting is kids, young people."
Warner said, "I didn't see it as that. If they are the ones making the noise, then that's the ones we are going to target," she said. "But I don't think that is the intent at all. It's just noise."
Andrew Washer said, "I just heard from some kids that the sheriff talked to their parents and the noise stopped."
Shell interrupted Washer, saying, "You are saying they are just busting on young kids?"
"Why do we have people videoing them, stopping them and lecturing them?" asked Butch Washer. Andrew Washer added, "I got lectured about my car audio going up to Hightown. Right in front of me was an old fellow in his hotrod making the same amount of noise as I make."
"Just because someone else got away with it, stop squalling about it," Shell told Washer loudly, waving his hands in the air with his face turning red, "That's the reason this whole thing got brought up. It didn't happen with loud exhaust; it didn't happen with Harleys on the street. You have to take a healthy dose of respect and respect your elders, instead of, 'I got busted for something and someone else didn't.' You created a problem so that you are going to get picked on. You have to step up to the plate and be the man. I'm not trying to be hard on anybody. You can't tighten this thing down to where people can't breathe."
Having been interrupted, Andrew Washer left the room in the middle of Shell's lecture.
After council ended its meeting, Shell apologized in private to Andrew Washer for the outburst and the accusation. He did not know Washer was stopped during the day, but thought it was at night when excessive noise clearly violated the community standard for noise. Since no noise ordinance has been passed, Washer had violated no law.
Washer finishes his thought
Later, Washer said the point he was trying to make before council was that a campaign of harassment was under way in town, by town residents, whose identity he refused to disclose. He said he had been recorded on video while passing through town in his vehicle. He said he believed his music was at a reasonable level.
Washer said he agrees with most of what the ordinance proposes. He comes home late from working at the Highland Inn several times a week. "When I come home at those hours my stereo should not be playing. But this ordinance needs to be flexible. It doesn't matter if it is a Jake brake (auxiliary braking device on a truck that helps prevent brake overheating), boom car, or something, even if you are going up a mountain (outside of town) you can hear it in town. In spring when leaves haven't come back, I can hear (from his house on Main and Maple Street) a crowd or baseball bat at school when a game is going on. I can hear a bell at recess. This valley echoes. I was stopped by (a resident) who said, 'If you were my kid your hide would be so red you couldn't sit.' He told me, 'If I hear your music again so that I can't think, you are going to have a lawsuit against you.'"
Washer is 18 and a 2007 graduate of Highland High School. He is employed in construction full-time and is working at the Highland Inn part-time. He will be leaving Highland County in January to attend a vocational school in Pennsylvania to learn auto body repair. He hopes some day to raise a family in Highland County after he has gained some experience and is ready to open his own business, citing the good schools and rural nature of the area. But his exposure to town "street justice," the intolerance he sees in the proposed ordinance and in the behavior of some council members, has left him wondering if Highland is really a place he could call home, he said.
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